22 



able to deflroy ; but the ftrength or beauty of which I could no more 

 {hew by an extraft, than the pedant of Hierocles could give an idea 

 of the excellence of his houfe from the fample of one of its bricks. Be- 

 fides this traft, whofe main objeft is to prove that the pfalms had been 

 compofed in rhime, our author, fome years after, publiftied, in his com- 

 mentaries on the Pentateuch, the two fongs of Mofes in Exodus and 

 Deuteronomy, verfe for verfe, and rhime for rhime, proving in the 

 fame irrefragable manner, that thefe treafures of Hebrew poetry had 

 likewife been compofed in rhime. The great charge againft Le Clerc 

 is, that he has tranfpofed the Hebrew text to his own purpofe ; and 

 Calmet, the bittereft of his enemies, (who feems to have indulged 

 more heat than became fuch a caufe) aflerts, that any part of Cicero's 

 orations might in the fame manner be twilled into rhime. The experi- 

 ment has been made on fome of them, and failed. But, fuppofmg the 

 trial had fucceeded, and rhimes been picked out of the Roman orator, 

 what would have become of his beauty and eloquence fo tranfpofed ? 

 Lojl in the tranpofttion. And conceding Calmet's accufation well-founded, 

 and that Le Clerc has, for the fake of the rhimes, inverted the textual 

 order, (which, as before obfcrved, the fimplicity of the Hebrew did 

 not admit,) what harmony, what clearnefs has been loll ? So little, 

 that where the text itfelf was obfcure, Le Clerc by rejioring the rhimes, 

 throws both a new light and a new elegance on it. Indeed, he feemed 

 himfelf aware of the objeftion ; and by an extraft from the Pallor Fido, 

 which he throws into profe, challenges his adverfaries to determine the 

 rhimes. The fame he obferves of the Spanilh verfe ; both of which, 

 though familiar languages, he provokes them to make trial of: fliewing 

 that the rhimes even in thefe languages, could not be traced in the 

 manner he has done in the Hebrew. But by one well-timed obfer- 

 vation, which, however, fome of his objeftors fet at no account, he has 

 put the matter beyond difpute : he proves, that in order to accommodate 

 the rhime to the verfe, and the verfe to the rhime, the Hebrews would 

 foraetimes abandon their own language, for that of their neighbours the 

 Chaldeans, when the taectv galled for it : as in the fecond pfalm v. 1 2. 



where 



